20260227 Aufwachen im autonomen Auto

27.02.2026 Aufwachen im autonomen Auto

How long to wake up?

In a highly automated SAE Level 3 car, you can drive in traffic jams and, in theory, take your hands off the wheel and your eyes off the road. You can even read a book or play games on your phone. Closing your eyes for a moment wouldn't be a problem either, if you weren't at risk of falling asleep...

At SAE level 4 (fully automated), the vehicle is considered to be so autonomous, for example on the highway, that humans could theoretically withdraw. What about real sleep? This was investigated by the Salsa (Smart, Adaptive, and Learnable Systems for All) research project. The research consortium is backed by a group of car manufacturers, suppliers, and scientists, the University of Stuttgart, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies, and Image Exploitation (IOSB).

The most important finding of the research is what is known as "sleep inertia," the phase immediately after waking up. Unfortunately, the IOSB studies prove that physical and mental performance is significantly reduced after a period of genuine sleep. We are talking about a period of two minutes during which a person's reaction time is significantly delayed. Once again, the question arises as to who is liable for errors made during this phase ...